Housing advocates renew push for funding

Money remains blocked as impasse between Cuomo, lawmakers continues

By Matt Hamilton

Published
11:18 pm EST, Thursday, January 12, 2017

Albany

Advocates for the homeless have a message for Gov. Andrew Cuomo — 25,000 messages, to be exact.

Groups seeking the release of funds to construct new housing units statewide will drop off thousands of printed emails at his Capitol offices on Friday. The document drop marks the one-year anniversary of Cuomo's 2016 State of the State address, where he first proposed $20 billion in investments to tackle the state's housing and homelessness needs.

Their request is not new A "memorandum of understanding" that set aside $2 billion for the construction of supportive and affordable housing was agreed to in principle by the governor and legislative leaders last year, but all parties have yet to put their signatures on that MOU, meaning the bulk of the money hasn't been released. In June, $150 million was released.

The long gap between the framing of the MOU and its execution is unusual.

"Everything has stalled — because if you can't get an agreement on something this simple, then nobody has been willing to look at the long term," said Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, D-Queens, chair of the Social Services Committee "It really is a failure of state government."

Cuomo's budget director was told to sign the MOU in September, but so far legislative leaders haven't followed suit. The memo was discussed during negotiations for a potential special session late last year to address several issues, including a pay raise for state lawmakers. But those talks ultimately fell apart.

"We're in the middle of a homeless crisis," Cuomo said in December as he sought the release of $1 billion from the MOU.

Since the start of the new legislative session this month, he has renewed his call for the Legislature to unlock the funding.

Cuomo's State of the State message to the Legislature, printed up this week, calls the funding a "historic investment (that is) ... urgently needed to bring transformational benefits to New York's most vulnerable residents."

This winter, the state once again instituted a policy that the homeless must be sheltered when the temperature drops below 33 degrees, a requirement that strained some shelters last year.

Shelter operators maintain that supportive housing, which would be built with the MOU money, is the best option to aid the homeless. Michael Finocchi, executive director of Shelters of Saratoga, called it "the best, most humane, and most cost-effective way to provide chronically homeless people the support they need.

"This isn't theory; we see it first-hand," Finocchi said in a statement. "Gov. Cuomo has shown leadership on the issue in the past. Now we are calling on him to do it again. Finish the job. Get this MOU signed so the first 6,000 units of supportive housing can be built."